Silly Rabbit, Tricks Aren’t for Kids

Here is a quote that the White Rabbit proclaimed early in chapter two:

… muttering to himself, as he came, “Oh! The Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! Wo’n't she be savage if I’ve kept her waiting!”

And:

“The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?”

And I bring you one more quote:

“Talking of axes,” said the Duchess, “chop off her head!”

Now we both know the Queen of Hearts was famous for her phrase, “Off with his/her head!” As the quote states, the Duchess did mention something of the same sort. First, I’d like to explore the connection between the Queen and Duchess.

Why would Carroll have the two characters relate in this way? In chapter eight, we discovered that the Queen locked the Duchess up, so the two obviously do not have a pleasant relationship. After being released, the Duchess actually seemed rather nice, going off about morals. Through all these instances, we can conclude that the two characters were very different, yet they shared the phrase that involved beheading someone.

Now that that questionable connection is made, let’s move on to the White Rabbit’s statements. He fears that he will be punished to a fatal degree. Now you can easily predict that he is fearing the Queen, but he directly says the Duchess.

What???

Is this some kind of mix-up? He doesn’t work for the Duchess, he works for the Queen. He never even meets the Duchess directly in the story. Is this some kind of trick? Did Carroll do this on purpose or did he just mess up? Am I missing something here?

Let’s say that he did, in some weird dimension, he did in fact mean the Duchess. In the first scene with the Duchess, as the quote says, she said to execute Alice. The cook didn’t seem to care, so it seems that the Duchess had no real power. Yet, the White Rabbit still was very afraid, which doesn’t seem likely.

Can anyone provide some insight to this, or is it a complete fiasco on Carroll’s part?

Final Thoughts

Here are my final thoughts on the Alice Project.

This project was very fun and I would have no problem doing some other type of project like this again. This project has helped me with my writing and my analyzing skills. Also I loved reading the book even though there were some confusing parts of it. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have opened my eyes on all of the children books I have ever read. I have never noticed how much death and destruction goes on in these books. I was always to into the stories and the pretty colors. The books always try to pull away from the story with all of the illustrations and colors. This book was refreshing and there wasn’t many pictures in the way so I couldn’t focus on the story.

The Alice Project should be an experiment for other schools to see if their writing is better afterward. Also it would help everyone see that the Disney movie is actually based on a book that is written for a little girl. I would also be very curious on what they thought of the project.

I hope someday that this project could go national and maybe international. Also I could say that I was one of the first people to do this project and I was a student of the teacher who invented this project. This would be amazing to me and this project will be the highlight of my life as a student. One day after I have graduated college I hope to find this website and read all of the posts that come after we finish the project. This was my favorite project yet and I hope this project continues in the next generations of tenth grade students at my school.

Carroll vs. Tenniel

Have you ever noticed how Tenniel’s drawings don’t always match up with what Carroll is writing? I first realized this when I would look at the pictures and noticed that Alice never looked happy. She always seemed to be frowning or upset about something. She even had distressed looks when Carroll had described her as content at that time. For example when Alice is at the “Mad Tea Party,” they (The March hair, The Dormouse, The Hatter, and Alice) are discussing a riddle. Carroll gives the reader incite on Alice’s thoughts about the situation saying, “Come, we shall have some fun now!, I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles.” After reading this you would expect to see a picture of a content Alice pondering the riddle. However when you look at Tenniel’s illustration of this scene, she seems not interested in the conversation at all. It is almost like she doesn’t even want to be there and the other characters at the table are irritating her.

LOOK AT HER FACE!

Maybe she is making these faces because of the seemingly pointless conversation about the difference between meaning what she says and saying what she means. Not only this picture but many others throughout the book show Alice as not being happy.

I also mentioned this idea in my groups second Cover It Live. Check it out.

A Dream May Be the Only Possible Solution

From the beginning of the book there has always been the thought that Alice is fast asleep and is dreaming all this nonsense. The very first sentence of the story says, “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank.” Looking back on it, it seems like Carroll is immediately telling us that it is a dream. I realize that if I had figured this out in the beginning everything would have made a lot more sense. In most of my first blogs I questioned the possibility of everything that was going on. Although I was a little disappointed when I finished the book and found out that she definitely was dreaming the whole story. It seemed like an easy way out of a complex story. After talking with a couple of my fellow classmates, they too feel a little betrayed by the ending. I felt this way with many movies that have ended this way too.

While commenting on a blog posted by Deron about what Alice should be thankful for, the ending of the book struck me in a new way. I answered the prompt saying that Alice should be thankful for the fact that the whole thing was just a dream. I mean how was Alice every going to get out of Wonderland? There was no way that she could possibly go out through the rabbit hole that she came through. Then I realized that that was the only way that she could have left Wonderland. It seems like that was Carroll’s only option and he had set it up from the beginning.

My question for you is: Did you know for sure that it was all just a dream from the beginning or were you undecided till the final chapter when she woke up? Be honest.

Why a Cheshire Cat?

Have you ever wondered why they had a Cheshire Cat talk to Alice? Why didn’t Carroll choose a different animal? Carroll most likely chose a Cheshire Cat because a common phase in Carroll’s was “Grin like a Cheshire Cat.” This is in one of the annotations from The Annotated Alice. The Cheshire Cat was so popular most likely because Cheshire cheeses were once molded into cats. Another reason could be because a sign painter in Cheshire painted grinning lions on the signboards of inns. Carroll was also born in Cheshire which could mean he wanted to bring in some of his childhood into the story. All of these facts were from The Annotated Alice if you would like to read more about the possible reasons.

Here is a little “did you know?” fact. Did you know that the Cheshire Cat was not in the original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground? Why would Carroll not have him in the original manuscript? The Cheshire Cat seems like a big character. Also Alice at first did not call it a Cheshire Cat. At first she called it a Cheshire-Puss. Was Carroll trying to signify something by doing this because it was cut out in the Disney movie of Alice in Wonderland? During the first scene when Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, the Cat asks about the baby. This does not seem important at all. The Cheshire Cat asks his question about the baby. Alice answers it and that’s it. Nothing else is spoken about it. Although the Cheshire Cat seems to be a key character, I just get this feeling that there is more than just cat that disappears.

10/6: Major and Minor Characters of Wonderland

As I have followed Alice’s Adventures through Wonderland, I have noticed a slightly ironic number of characters. Personally, I group the characters into two groups: major and minor characters. The ones who seriously impacted Alice on the mad-front, and those who simply helped it along.

Major: The White Rabbit, Caterpillar, Duchess, Queen of Hearts, King of Hearts, Hatter, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Gryphon, and Mock Turtle.
Minor: The mouse, the Dormouse, Bill, the Dodo, the frog footman, and the Pigeon.

This could be the reason Carroll (or Tenniel) had the Hatter wear those numbers. This is very unlikely, for there are more logical explanations, such as it was an advertisement for the size of the hat, etc. Though, there is always the possibility.

As for the characters, we all know they were madly bizarre. As I have seen it, the motif in this story was holding back from going mad in a mad world. Each and every one of the major characters were very mad, and arguably even some of the minor characters. There is also the fact that none of the major characters actually had real names, which could mean nothing or everything. Through any faults, though, I have to applaud Carroll for his creativity and originality on developing these characters. The Cheshire Cat, the “Hookahpillar”, the Mock Turtle; among others.

The minor characters were more casual, although many played key roles in Alice’s adventures. The dodo brought up the Caucus Race, the mouse presented his Tale (which was a very memorable scene)…

The question remains, though, is all of Wonderland mad? As I said, it could be argued that some of the minor characters were mad, but maybe not. I think it’s unanimous that all of the major characters were, but are they all, including the minors? Is it 10/6 in that sense?

Sane in a Mad World: Analysis of Chapter Twelve

“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”

Chapter twelve was Alice’s final assertion of her confidence in her sanity. She caught the inhabitants of Wonderland in many of their nonsensical words, much like how they previously pointed out “nonsense” in what she says. The tables have turned. Alice knows that Wonderland is mad and proclaims so many times in chapter twelve.

“That’s the most important piece of evidence we’ve heard yet,” said the King, rubbing his hands; “so now let the jury-”
“If any one of them can explain it,” said Alice, … “I don’t believe there’s an atom of meaning in it.”

“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”

What’s ironic is how the King called Alice to the stand, as if she was now a citizen of Wonderland as well. At this point, she was the farthest from their madness as ever. It seems that maybe they had finally accepted her as as mad as them… but this was not the case.

An argument between the King and Alice took up the majority of the chapter, mainly consisting of Alice defending against nonsensical statements.

“Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.”

“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first verdict afterwards.”

The explaining of the letter was especially ridiculous. I’m even surprised Alice didn’t attack that right away, for he took the smallest technicality in every line to mean something at least slightly relevant to the trial. Well, this kind of behavior isn’t exactly irregular in Wonderland.

The end of the chapter began once Alice finally questioned the speaker behind the nonsense rather than trying to fight the actual nonsense, which would probably never cease. The second Alice questioned his validity, the world fell apart. Maybe this was Carroll’s overall theme: staying mad in a mad world. Her dream exploded with a deck of cards flying into the air and her sister shaking her awake. As expected, one can be fairly disappointed at this ending. The action somewhat rose near the end and in the end it just… stopped. What was Carroll thinking? Was there some reason behind his decision to end this story this way?

It is strange, though, how Carroll went on to have her sister sense the presence of Wonderland after it was over. Does Wonderland really exist? If so, how could that possibly be? What was Carroll getting at here in the story?

For Part One Of The Analysis Visit Lindsay’s Blog

For Part Two Of The Analysis View Alex’s Blog